Something you may (not) know about Sydney is that he has an ever-expanding collection of books that span topics such as Menswear (naturally), Photography, Film, Textiles, Art, Architecture, Industrial Design, and more...
The collection includes antique and rare books–each one beautiful to look at and a pleasure to flip through. So, we decided to share this pleasure with our customers and visitors by starting a Book-of-the-Month program. Each month we will bring out another book from Sydney's personal collection and to share both in the store, and here on our blog.
This month we have chosen Irving Penn's Small Trades, which was also the name of a Getty Center Exhibition last year. The best description of the book is written on the inside sleeve of the dust jacket as follows:
"In 1950 and 1951, Irving Penn created portraits of workers in Paris, London and New York who are dressed in their work clothes and carrying the tools of their occupations. Small Trades constitutes Penn's most extensive body of work to date, and he returned to it after many decades to make ever more exacting prints in gelatin silver and platinum/palladium. More than two hundred images from the series are reproduced in this book, which also includes an introductory essay that describes the history and context of the Small Trades series and its importance in the evolution of Penn's career."
Chesnut Vendor, New York, 1951
Pâtissiers, Paris, 1950 [Pastry Chefs]
